CLP Orientation

Last Sunday marked the start of our CLP for this year. Our titos and titas from Couples for Christ used their original timeslot on a Saturday night so we decided to have our CLP on a Sunday afternoon in our home parish. Sunday at 2-5 pm is the new fixed timeslot of SFC. Now, we can say that our chapter is really integrated in our Parish. Yehey!

Honestly it was a surreal moment for me being in that venue again for CLP purposes. But this time it was different. I use to be the driving force behind all the efforts that needed to be done by the chapter and the service team. I was in charge and I call the shots. Now, I am a follower, a listener, a supporter and sometimes an adviser. It was an honest, peaceful sentiment for me knowing that this time around, I can just relax and serve Him without any pressure. After all, that is why we are all there – to serve Him. I know that this CLP will be great because I have total confidence in Ryan and Chin. They have the complete support of an efficient service team and the full thrust of our Chapter. Just look at our orientation. We were a well-oiled machine executing gracefully all the planned tasks and activities – we got the speaker that we wanted, the sharers were prepared, music min was good (new chapter guitar and all), prayer warriors were taken cared of, registration was organized, the food was properly prepared (new chapter jug and glasses. Hehe) etc. Everything was smooth because everybody did their part. The turnout was also decent. We got 9 participants with 4 or 5 more attending next week.

So good luck CLP service team! Continue your fasting and I will be praying for you guys! GB!

Cassandra

Congratulations to my SFC sister Cassie for graduating in college! The ’sisig’ in your graduation celebration was so delicious! We also found a way to make Karaoke so much fun while making all the guests sing! I’ll keep the details a secret so that it becomes EastA1B confidential (unless Ryan posts it in his blog. Haha!) Here’s to going home at 3 am! Wohooo!

Deployment

For anyone who knows the real Accenture work life, I know it will be hard to believe that in my almost three years of stay in this company, I have never worked on night shifts. As with all things in life, that is about to change.

I was asked to be part of the deployment support group in our team. Usually, I would decline night shifts but for some reason, I accepted this one. Actually, come to think of it, this is really not a night shift but more of a 24-hour shift because we still had to go to the office in the morning and stay at night for the deployment. I was literally awake for 24 full hours!

Generally, I thought it was a nice experience. I didn’t have to come to office today so I had enough time to sleep, attend to some errands then go on gimmicks. And the food during deployment was overflowing! We had dinner at North Park, had dessert in Starbucks, had lots of chips and empanada the whole time, and ate a buffet breakfast in RCBC. And I didn’t have to spend a single dime! Yahoo!

Another good thing about being there when the application gets deployed is that you get to ‘protect’ your module. At 4am, the testing team verified that my module wasn’t working in the production environment! It didn’t matter that I was so sleepy because I was up for more than 20 hours then; I became wide awake when I heard that. My heart was pumping hard while trying to investigate. Good thing, it was just a false alarm. There were just some discrepancies in the configuration that was migrated to production. In short, it’s not my fault! Haha!

Kudos to my team for successfully producing high quality application to our customers! You guys are: High Performance. Delivered.

March Celebrators

Every month, our team in Accenture recognizes all the birthday celebrators for that specific month. Naturally, there is a committee that handles these celebrations. I am part of this as an ‘extra-curricular’ activity. For the January celebration, we had Jolibee for breakfast so we asked everyone to come in earlier than usual if they wanted to get the ‘limited’ breakfast (actually, there was enough for everybody. we just wanted to get full attendance early in the morning. hehe). For February, we had it on Valentines Day with some sort of ‘love’ theme (we just had pizza so no relation on the food there. Hehe). For this month, we have some sort of ‘pinoy summer’ feel by giving everyone ‘Halo-halo’ along with other pinoy mirienda such as ‘lumpiang toge’ and all sorts of ‘kakanin.’ Yummy! It’s a bit self-serving because I influenced what was to be served for this month by my personal preference. But what the heck, it’s my birth month too!

Going into the preparations, our manager had this brilliant idea to make our celebration more meaningful. She just found out that I am an SFC member. Coming from SFC herself (she is now married), she thought it would more fun if we have some sort of ‘honoring’. Since we cannot afford 70+ people to honor six birthday celebrators for the month, she thought of just asking the people closest to us to give a line or two.

And so the birthday celebration came this afternoon. My senior team lead, being the naughty energy that she is, made some twists to the plan. Instead of just asking the people closest to us, she asked the people who are ‘linked’ to us in the project. Their goal was to pair us up with other team members. In effect, the honoring became more of a teasing session with loud ‘yiheeee!’ from all over. It was quite embarrassing because I am really uncomfortable putting my personal life in the spot light. But it was nonetheless fun! Thanks to my fellow committee members for pulling this off! The short program was entertaining and the food was great! See you in the next planning for the April celebrators!

The Secret Society of the IC

Yesterday, I found out something that made me want to write this post. I guess I just felt a bit sad knowing what I discovered given that everything is just getting better by the day. But then again, nothing is final yet. It was just a happy surprise that an unexpected friendship developed from an unlikely combination of people. It was almost like a secret because the friendship will only thrive if other people just allow it to be. And since it was just allowed to progress, it got better every time. I actually found myself looking forward to the next time we’ll have lunch again. It honestly felt like being a teen again – crushes, teasing, cutting ‘classes’, CD exchanges, joking around, coffee shop discussions, ice cream trips and the list goes on. For all the many things we ’secretly’ do outside the office, here’s to more fun and friendly conversations! So what is this I’m talking about?! I can’t tell you. It’s complicated! ;p

Birthday Post

older – sagip session – kids – cards – games – preparation – mass – dinner – chapter – honoring – cherifer boys – drinking – 6AM – fun – thankful – etc – sorry can’t elaborate

Galera Dive

After what seems to be forever, I was able to dive again! Yahoo! To accomplish this, I had to block off the dive date in my planner a month early. We went to Oceania Puerto Galera as part of the Accenture ‘Clean-up dive.’ I was with my AAT buds Carlos, Sean, Omi, Leah and Sherwin. We again used the AAT van and were headed for another adventure. We had four dives and here are some things that I’d like to mention:

Crown of Thorns

The first dive was the clean-up dive. WWF initiated and briefed us in this effort. We were supposed to gather this starfish-like creature called the “Crown of Thorns (COT).” It basically looks like a starfish that had very prominent thorns. They’re supposed to harm the underwater environment because they eat up the corals that serve as shelter and source of food for the marine creatures. The dive site that was assigned to us had very few Crown of Thorns. In our boat, we were only able to gather 3 in the whole 45-minute dive. Apparently, there seemed to be a mix-up in dive sites because the site that we went to was already “cleaned.” Our DM (Dive Master) got one and gave it to me by using the thongs I was carrying and placing it inside my net basket. It was so hard to carry the net basket. I had to fully stretch my right arm sideward to avoid any physical contact with these COTs because they sting and you’ll swell for at least a week. Plus they move gradually in the water. One minute they are at the bottom of the net, the next thing you know they are already on the verge of freedom at the upper portions of the net. You really have to keep an eye on them and push them inside the net every now and then with the thongs I was carrying. It’s hard enough that I am doing all these things while managing my buoyancy that I didn’t need additional things to worry about. But I did. There were these two divers who kept on hovering below me then suddenly go up my way so I had to jerk to avoid them. Aside from the fact that their bubbles annoy me, I had to maneuver myself so that they do not get hit with the poisonous “thorns” of the COT I was carrying. Not only that, they sometimes carelessly bump me as if it’s my responsibility to avoid them. I thought to myself “Kailangan ba talaga akong siksikin? Dude, ang laki-laki ng dagat! Go pick your own spot! Di ka ba tinuruang mabuti ng dive instructor mo! Oo na, certified diver ka na! Di ko malaman kung nagpapa-impress ka o nagpapa-pansin eh.” Of course I couldn’t say that aloud because I had my regulator firmly attached to my mouth. Hehe. For a split second, I thought of just allowing things to happen – them carelessly going up my way while the huge Crown of Thorns sting their sweet faces… What a lovely sight. But that was just for a split second. Hehe. I had to be the better diver even if it brings me unnecessary inconvenience. Because unlike them, I have good manners… even under water.

Aborted Dive

My second dive was in this site called the Sabang Wreck. There are basically three ship wrecks 60-70 feet below. I had my descent and waited for my dive buddy Carlos in the clear sandy bottom around 40 feet below sea level. For everyone who is not aware, scuba diving always requires a buddy. You always dive at least in pairs so that you have someone to look after you during the dive. You never dive alone, unless you’re suicidal. Going back, around 5 minutes after my buddy reached the bottom, he tapped me and signaled me to go up! Initially, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! We haven’t even explored the site yet and we already had to go up. But a good buddy had to do what good buddies do – and that is to abort the dive when one buddy does feels extremely uncomfortable for some reason. When we reached the surface, Carlos explained he panicked for acceptable reasons – his regulator was leaking so there were disturbing bubbles pestering him while his air supply is running out faster than usual, all he could see was just this deep blue abyss going down, we were going to a wreck which is basically a human instrument of transport where all its former passenger are now already dead, and lastly that he was breathing so hard that if felt like he was always catching his breath to the point of hyperventilating (he only had I think 2 hours of sleep prior to that dive.) My dive buddy was so apologetic at the surface and kept on saying sorry. I told him it was really ok because frankly it really was. The friend is more important than the dive. Also, I am not really a fan of ship wreck dives so I don’t think I was missing a lot. Besides, these are the things that they teach you in scuba diving school, not so much for academic purposes but because it will really happen. Actually, I am a bit glad having an aborted dive because at least I have applied what I have learned. I can just charge this to experience that will add up to being a better dive buddy. Besides, on our last dive, Carlos, Omi, Sean and I went back to Sabang Wreck and had a fun and successful dive with lots and lots of pictures to prove them. See! Surrender and God will make a way! (Sorry, I just had to put that in because I really thought that way then.)

90 feet

My Open Water certification only allows me to dive 60 feet and above the sea level. But on my dive in Sinandigan Wall, I reached more than 90 feet coming into a hundred feet! The water was so calm, the temperature was just right, the visibility was so good and the dive sight was so rich in creatures that it didn’t occur to me that I was going into the hundred-foot mark already! No wonder it was harder to breath at a certain point. This is what you get when you have two Advanced Open Water divers in your dive group (Sean and Sherwin) – you get carried away. Hehe. Sorry. ;p

AAT forever

It was good to be with my AAT buds again. The last time I remember us going out was during Mike’s despedida. After that, we got busy doing our respective work (we are now scattered into different team so it’s harder for us to meet during office hours). In any case, you guys will always be my family here in Accenture. So don’t create any issues if you see me going out with other groups/friends! *Hint Hint* Hehe. ;p

Home-cooked Me

Last Saturday was my quarterly dinner with my ‘teka-teka’ group/college friends. Usually, we go out and try a restaurant that most of us have never tried before just so we will have a new experience and have something to look forward to. This one would be the same thing except we didn’t go out to a restaurant. It was home-cooked meals this time around.

For some unfortunate reasons, only four of us in the group made it – Me, Ryan (G), Jam and Jeanie (cause she was the host. hehe) and also for some weird reason I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all with the fact that there are only a few of us. I enjoyed the conversations, the dinner preparations (Japanese food rules!), the dinner itself and even the early departure (cause I double-booked that night. bz bee).

I realize now why I was OK with it:

We have been doing this quarterly dinner thing for almost three years now since we graduated. There was a conscious decision from all of us to not only keep in touch but maintain our friendship even after college…. even after it is unnecessary…. even after it is not that convenient. Every quarter, we’d find a way to stop whatever we’re doing and make time to see old friends who have been there for us years before we were this busy (and moderately successful I guess). Every time I meet them, the idealism that I once held that is now jaded by the corporate experience somehow finds its way back even just for a split second. I am reminded not to settle for anything mediocre and try to juice out the best this life can offer. Of course this time there is that SFC factor in me. Nonetheless, these guys remind me of what I wanted to be even before this chaos of a young professional existed. It is easy for us to lose track of our dreams when we have been so immersed with our reality. These guys take me back to a place where I strived for excellence and betterment.

So even if there are days when we are not complete, it will still be ok. The important truth is that we are still willing to continue maintain the bonds we have formed. So that means there will always be next time! So guys, see you on the next quarterly dinner!

Johari Window

I just realized recently that there are a number of friends who read my blog but do not leave any comments in it. Haha! That’s OK! No problem about that. I just need to feel your presence by trying this one out. Pleaaaassseee:

http://kevan.org/johari?name=ThomasAnthony

Chow!